50 interesting facts about Tom Cruise: he wanted to become a priest, has a national day in Japan

Tom Cruise is an A-list actor and Scientologist and the star of many box office hits, including Risky Business, A Few Good Men, The Firm, and Jerry Maguire.

1. HIs full name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV.

2. Tom Cruise was born on July 3, 1962 in Syracuse, New York.

3. His father was an electrical engineer and his mother was a special education teacher.

4. Tom is of German, Irish, and English ancestry.

5. Cruise was bullied regularly in the 15 different schools he attended in 12 years.

6. With his savings, he bought his first motorcycle when he was 12.

7. He played floor hockey but stopped when he was injured and damaged his front teeth.

8. Tom was raised in a devout Catholic household and he initially wanted to become a priest. At age 14, he even attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati on a scholarship, but he lure of Hollywood prove too strong.

9. It might come as a surprise that Tom Cruise was a wrestler during his high school years.

10. Cruise described his father as an abusive one - a bully coward. He left his mom when he was young and Tom took up odd jobs like mowing neighbors lawns to help his mom with the bills.

11. Cruise became interested in acting when he won the lead in a high school production of Guys and Dolls.

12. While working on getting his big break, Tom was employed as a bus boy, porter and he cleaned tables. Later he studied at the respected Neighborhood Playhouse.

13. He missed his high school graduation ceremony because he was acting in a production of Godspell.
14. During the late '80s, Cruise, with Julia Roberts, was approached to be the leads in an adaptation of John Carter of Mars, which eventually became the box office failure starring Taylor Kitsch.

15. He earned his pilot's license in 1994.

16. Author Anne Rice publicly criticized the casting of Cruise as Lestat in the 1994 big-screen adaptation of her book Interview with the Vampire. However, after seeing the film, she bought a two-page ad in Daily Variety for $7,740, commending his performance and apologizing to him.
    
17. In 1994, he was awarded man of the year by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club, known for its production featuring Harvard men in drag. Accordingly, he accepted the award wearing a bra and heels.
18. In his memoir The Time of My Life, Patrick Swayze, his co-star in The Outsiders, revealed that Cruise was so insecure about his teeth that he avoided photo shoots.
19. He portrays heroes in movies but he became a real life one in 1998 when he saved a woman being mugged in London, chasing the attackers away with his bodyguards.
    
20. In another incident in 1996, after witnessing a woman get struck by a car, he accompanied her to the hospital. After learning that she didn't have insurance, he paid her emergency room bill of $7000.

21. Costar Paul Newman got him interested in auto racing while filming The Color of Money, and he went on to race on Newman's team.

22. When it came to animating 1992's feature film 'Aladdin', Disney modelled the face of their young hero on Tom Cruise, who was dominating the box office with movies like 'Days Of Thunder' and 'A Few Good Men'.

23. He improvised the iconic Risky Business scene where he dances in his underwear. Shot in half of a day, the scene started with only one line in the script: "Joel dances in underwear through the house."
    

24. First actor to appear in five consecutive movies (A Few Good Men, The Firm, Interview with the Vampire, Mission: Impossible and Jerry Maguire) that grossed more than $100 million in the U.S.

25. Joined the Church of Scientology after its study courses helped him overcome dyslexia.

26. His first wife was actress Mimi Rogers. They were divorced in February 1990.

27. Actress Nicole Kidman was his wife for 11 years. They divorced in 2001.

28. In 1992 he adopted Isabella Jane Kidman Cruise, in 1995 Connor Antony Kidman Cruise.

29. While he was married to Nicole Kidman, it was believed that Tom Cruise is gay and that he married Nicole Kidman just to save his public image. These rumors were generated thanks to gay porn star Chad Slater, who alleged that he and Tom had an affair. However, it was soon proven that these rumors are false.

30. He wore braces in 2002 to straighten his teeth but would take them off to shoot movies.

31. Tom Cruise married actress Katie Holmes in 2006. Cruise proposed to Holmes in the early morning of June 17, 2005, on top of Paris' Eiffel Tower.

32. During his third marriage to actress Katie Holmes in Italy, his best man was none other than David Miscavige, the leader of the Church of Scientology.

33. His daughter Suri to Katie Holmes was born in April 2006. The name Suri is believed to be a variation of Sarah.

34. The "couch incident" on Oprah was voted No.1 of 2005's "Most Surprising Television Moments" on a countdown on Entertainment magazine or E and No.5 at BoxOfficeProphets.com. and was the subject of numerous parodies.

35. Before marrying Cruise, ex-wife Katie Holmes had a poster of him on her wall as a teen. Months before they met, she told Seventeen magazine in 2004, ''I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise.''

36. In 2013 Cruise admitted that ex-wife Katie Holmes divorced him in part to protect the couple's daughter Suri from Scientology. He also admitted that Suri is no longer a practicing member of the church.

37. Tom Cruise's height is 5'7". However, Mimi Rogers is 5'8", Nicole is 5'10.5" and Katie is 5'10" tall.

38. Not only that, Mimi is 6 years older than Tom, Nicole is 5 years older than Tom and Katie is 16 years younger than Tom. Hence, with each marriage, his wives got younger.

39. Tom was then romantically involved to Penelope Cruz from 2001 up to 2004.
40. Since 2006, October 10 has been recognized as Tom Cruise Day in Japan, honoring the fact that he's visited the country more than any other Western actor.

41. In 2006, Premiere ranked Cruise as Hollywood's most powerful actor, as Cruise came in at number 13 on the magazine's 2006 Power List, being the highest ranked actor. The same year, Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity.

42. Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise star in the movie "Knight and Day". Cameron Diaz is obviously taller than Tom Cruise. Cameron is 5'9" tall and Tom is 5'7". However, throughout the movie, it would be interesting to note that Tom always looks taller than Cameron.
43. The baboon in Rock of Ages was his idea. When he was preparing for his role as Stacee Jaxx, he asked director Adam Shankman for a monkey, who he named "Hey Man" after watching the baboon's audition tape.

44. At the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, received the first-ever MTV Generation Award.

45. Before Robert Downey Jr. was cast as Tony Stark, Cruise was lined up to play Iron Man.

46. Cruise softened his increasingly divisive image in 2008 with a brilliant comic turn as a profane movie producer in Tropic Thunder.

47. Tropic Thunder co-star Ben Stiller credits Cruise with conceptualizing Les Grossman, including his baldness and penchant for dancing. He also chose to play the movie exec with big prosthetic hands.
48. During production of War of the Worlds, Tom Cruise had a Scientology tent set up with volunteers, where Scientology materials were distributed.
49. He refuses to lend his likeness to action figures or video games.

50. Tom's net worth is $350 million.